Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also zipp, zippo) energy, a stimulus.

1900		G.H. Lorimer Old Gorgon Graham (1904) 225: I need a burned neck and a peeled nose, a little more zest for my food, and a little more zip about my work .
1915		Van Loan ‘Sporting Doctor’ in Taking the Count 54: He’s got more zip than he ever had.
1917		Wodehouse ‘Extricating Young Gussie’ (in Man with Two Left Feet ) 25: Apparently there’s something in the air [...] A kind of zip, as it were.
1924		‘Sapper’ Third Round 588: His soul positively hankered for another little turn-up with Carl Peterson — something with a real bit of zip in it.
1930		K.S. Prichard Haxby’s Circus 275: First night of the new show went with ‘the zip’ Dan was always talking about.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 247: An orchestra was playing something with a good deal of zip to it.
1938		J. Weidman I Can Get It For You Wholesale 38: They have no novelty, no zip. People just take them for granted.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 22 Apr. [synd. cartoon strip] [title] Full of Zip Instead of Nip.
1947		‘A.P. Gaskell’ ‘Tidings of Joy’ in Big Game and Stories 34: He was very fit and full of zip.
1950		A. Buckeridge Jennings Goes To School 153: We want something with more zip.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 295: The jazz music they had had about as much zipp as a dead sheep.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 95: She appeared to be tucking into the various items [...] with her customary zip and brio.
1962		(con. WWII) J.O. Killens And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 311: All the zip was out of him.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 335: You’re getting back some of your old zip!
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 42: He managed to bounce back into big bucks with real zippo, as they say.
2000		Indep. Rev. 21 Jan. 10: Tavernier brings to this [...] all the zip he displayed in his excellent police procedural L627.
2012		D. Spivey ‘If You Were Only White’ 169: The master hurler began letting them fly with a fair amount of zip on them.

2. a highly energetic person.

1961		H.S. Thompson letter 21 Oct. in Proud Highway (1997) 292: Speaking of zip, Semonin should be in Tangier about now.
1974		(con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 46: Joey Capra was a zip. Short, wiry, always moving.

3. (drugs) cocaine.

2011

J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 168: She’s [...] sniffing a line of zip off a CD cover.